In Bosnia, there is a big difference between a “Muslim” and a “muslim”. The latter refers to a religious group regardless of ethnicity or race while the former refers to a nation and an ethnic group, namely the South Slavic Bosnian speaking Muslims (such as myself). This means that my sole identity, ethnicity wise, is “Muslim”. I am a Bosnian, yes, but that word hasn’t got anything to do with ethnicity or nationhood since it only refers to a citizen of Bosnia-Herzegovina. This understanding of the word “Muslim” is illustrated in this video clip. It is a scene from some movie (which I’ve never heard of before, I just stumbled upon that clip) in which a Croatian father wants to know whether or not the guy that wants to marry his daughter is a Muslim or not. The father and his friend (they are the ones with moustaches) try to determine whether or not he is a Muslim by discussing his physical features (“He isn’t a Muslim, just look at his head”). They decide that the only way to find out is for the guy to disclose whether or not he’s circumcised and that’s when he fesses up and reveals that he is “partially” Muslim. I also had a guy in my school who said he was “half Muslim” as he came from a mixed marriage. Another thing that shows you what I mean is an admonition I received from my grandmother. She told me to memorize suwar from the Qur’an and learn about my religion, not for the sake of Allah (even though this is obviously implied, don’t get me wrong) but so that, as she put it, “I would know to what nation I belong to”.
All of this had practical consquences during the campaign of ethnical cleansing in Bosnia. It didn’t matter to them if you were a pinko commie atheist or a “hadzija” who just returned from his third Hajj trip, if your name was “Husejn” or “Fatima” you had to die or give up your house and belongings to the Serbs (the different authoroties in the various areas had their own approaches, some conducted the ethnical cleansing through executions and others only expelled the Muslim population).
Also, all of this meant that growing up I had the perception that Muslims, in general, are my people because of the semantics issue. I didn’t differentiate between ethnicity and religion in the sense that I considered Muslims to be my co-religionists and some other group to be my people. No, if I found out that someone is a Muslim then I instantly considered him to be “my kind”, in every sense. This wasn’t necesserily about religion (even though I knew that this was the common denominator such that I would never include an atheist or a blatant apostate as part of my people), it was all about nationalism which is kind of funny and absurd now in retrospect. I say that because I can only imagine how a black guy in America would react if I, a white European, were to tell him that I consider Malcolm X to be ”my kind” and a part of my people. He’d probably think I’m a wigger.
I’m in no way claiming that the Bosnian Muslims, because of using the term “Muslim” in this particular sense, don’t differentiate between themselves and other Muslims. In fact, I’ve found out that many Bosnian Muslims, for instance, dislike Arabs and some are even racists (although I have to say that there aren’t really that many of the last category). Neither do I claim that I didn’t acknowledge the differences between Bosnian Muslims and other Muslims or that I didn’t feel closer to the former group. But for me personally (and this whole post is nothing but an account of my own personal subjective perspective which I know that many Bosnian Muslims don’t share) I felt about non-Bosnian Muslims in a way I would imagine a European Jew feels about, for instance, a Yemenite Jew.
And I would say that in general there are many similarities between the way people include both ethnicity and religion in the term “Jew” and the way people in Bosnia do the same with the word “Muslim”. There are two main differences here, though. First of all, the Jews in general accept this definition of the word “Jew”. This isn’t the case with the word “Muslim”. There aren’t many people outside of the Balkans that use the word in such a way. And the second, more important, difference is that whereas Jewish Halacha accepts such a definition of the word “Jew”, the Islamic Shari’ah doesn’t do the same with the word “Muslim”. Being a Muslim has nothing to do with ethnicity.
Having a capital M as the differentiation between a Muslim in the ethnic and religious sense can be kind of confusing. Consider the fact that in Bosnia, a Muslim isn’t necesserily a muslim and vice versa. Partially for this reason, but overwhelmingly due to political reasons, a new term is now officially used to describe the “Muslim nation”. We are now known as “Bosniaks” which makes it easier. It doesn’t change much, though, since we still call ourselves Muslims and are known as such by the Serbs, at least in my original home town. And it hasn’t changed my mindset. I still consider every Muslim to be my kind and my people. When Real Madrid is playing, I look for Mahamadou Diarra. When Sevilla is playing I hope that Frederick Kanouté will score. Last year’s summer, I wanted France to win because of Zidane. I prefer watching Chappelle than some other comedian and I get gitty when I go to the mall and hear a Cat Stevens or Mos Def song. That’s just where I come from. I guess that having a people hate you so much just for being Muslim that they are prepared to have you perish, will give you that sort of feeling of love for Muslims. But I don’t have a utopian kind of outlook where I imagine that this is reciprocated by Muslims in general. I think that Zidane, Chappelle, Mos Def etc. would consider me to be their brother, but not necesserily their kind (this obviously comes down to how you define “your kind”, but what I’m going for here is the feeling that your kind are those that are the closest to you and are considered by you to be your people in the fullest sense of the word).
I was recently watching a video with Abdullah El-Faisal. Now, I find some of this mans views to be appaling. The mere mention of his name would make me feel uncomfortable. But, I came across this video (start watching from minut 02:00) and when I actually saw him sitting there and calling to Tawhid… How can I help but to feel a sense of love? How can I not feel that this person, despite his otherwise repugnant views, is my kind in the fullest and truest sense? How can I not, upon seing that short clip, feel that the concept of nationality and ethnicity is so silly and futile in comparison to the real issue that should determine who I identify with and who I love? In the end, it is all about Allah. Whoever wants to worship Him alone and follow Him, and rejects the worship of anything created, this person is my kind and my brother. Everything else that is used to determine who is part of ones people diminishes in comparison.
3 Comments
March 5, 2008 at 8:45 pm
any more posts coming?
May 16, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Naw, I don’t think so. I am, however, planning to perhaps, with the help of Allah, start a Da’wah project in which I will use some of the articles on this blog.
August 26, 2008 at 1:15 pm
I love what you say, it’s so true! I have to express that I hate the fact that Bosnian Muslims have to be referred to as just “Muslims” in order to be racially defined. If we are native Bosnians then I see no point for us to not be considered as “Bosnians”, rather Muslims. Same thing as Croatians, they have the right to be considered plainly Croatian without a religious affiliation attatched, but we don’t have that right. To me it almost seems as though all the genocide the Serbs and Croats performed payed out for them because in the end we are now considered as a race only defined by religion, and not nationality, because apparantly the only demographics of Bosnia is either Serb, Croat, or “Muslim”. What can anybody possibly mean by Muslim? It is so wide, and why us? Why don’t they consider the people of Serbia as Orthodox Christians and not Serbians. It’s ridiculously unfair and it just proves that all the evil crimes in the War turned out positive towards Serbs and Croats.